Gates Foundation pledges $1.2B to eradicate polio globally

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

BERLIN (AP) — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide.

The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative is trying to end the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries, the foundation said in a statement Sunday.

The money also will be used to stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus. The announcement was made Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin.

The foundation says in a statement on its website that it has contributed nearly $5 billion to the polio eradication initiative. The initiative is trying to integrate polio campaigns into broader health services, while it scales up use of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2.



FILE - A person walks by the headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on April 27, 2018, in Seattle. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, that it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)


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[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. I wish them success; it's a terrible disease.

Maybe they'll succeed in "the 'Stans" where others have failed. Some of the locals are suspicious of outsiders bearing vaccines.

[OnlinePoker]

7. Doesn't help that the CIA used the vaccination program to track down Bin Laden

You can't build a lot of trust when they do shit like that.

[Igel]

9. Didn't help that for quite a few years before that

the word in parts of Pakistan/Afghanistan was the vaccine was actually a nefarous Western/Xian plot to sterilize Muslims so they don't have kids.

Pretty much every outbreak has two causes.

Live vaccine that's used in poorer countries. That's mostly Europe, the US, from reports. Probably also places like Brazil, but those cases don't break through to the media in the US.

Immigrants that rejected the vaccine because it was all a Western/Xian conspiracy. That's mostly Nigeria, Niger, Mali ... Where there are active Islamist insurgencies and cross-communication with backwaters in Pakistan/Afghanistan.

[303squadron]

2. I hope some of that money will be earmarked for New York

https://news.yahoo.com/unfortunate-return-polio-explained-090712921.html

[Sucha NastyWoman]

3. Good for them.

[ShazzieB]

4. I support this whole-heartedly.

The more places around the world where polio can be wiped out, the better.

Meanwhile, we haven't been able to fully eradicate polio in the U.S., due to a handful of idiot antivaxxers. If the Gates Foundation has a solution for that, I'd love to hear it. 😏

Don't get me wrong; I love what they're trying to do, and I hope they succeed. I just worry about human hard-headedness getting in the way.

[JI7]

5. It's the same in other parts of the world with people believing

in conspiracy theories and even killing the health care workers involved in vaccinating people.

[womanofthehills]

13. War also increases polio cases

It’s happening in Ukraine as many kids are not getting their childhood vaccines and polio is mostly a disease of those under 5.

[Igel]

10. It's been eradicated in the US.

But it's been reintroduced.

Now, those infected by the outbreaks may be anti-vaxxers, or just immigrants that were never vaccinated. Reports in the media have a strong bias, so if they're not labeled anti-vaxxers right up front it's likely the latter.

[twodogsbarking]

6. Thanks.

[trof]

8. Didn't we already do that once?

[keithbvadu2]

11. Fox would have kept it widespread.

[Orangepeel]

12. good for Bill Gates

impressed that he's not wasting his money trying to go to space

[demigoddess]

14. +1